Tom Riddle's Redemption
by Krazy97
Summary: The war is over, and things are settling down; for all except the one who died in the end...Tom Riddle has never been known for doing things halfway; now in the afterlife he has been given a task by Death itself: he must unite all eight pieces of his soul, scattered throughout the world. Failure means banishment to the pits of hell, but succeeding may be more than he bargained for.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Sadly Harry Potter is not yet mine...but I am working on it; but we all know it'll probably never happen...so for now I'm just playing with someone else's toy's and will put them back when I'm done.

A.N. I know, I shouldn't be starting another story but...I really couldn't resist and I really did try, I've been trying not to do this since like May

Warnings: This story is unbetaed, couple of oc's later on, and Tom Riddle developing emotions. & Female Harry

Rated T: for Tom Riddle's presence in this story...okay it's because I'm paranoid but whatever.

Updates: Hopefully on Saturdays, otherwise whenever I get the motivation to write for it, we'll have to see.

For your reference unless otherwise stated:

"Speech"

 _Thought_

 _"Parseltongue"_

 _"In head conversations"_

* * *

Prologue

While all of wizarding Britain celebrated the end of Voldemort elsewhere the main soul piece of one Tom Marvolo Riddle; sat in a holding cell as he awaited his sentencing…he didn't know why he had to wait…he had no doubt that he'd be going to hell…after all he mutilated his soul beyond repair…created horcruxes…the darkest of the dark arts.

He knew it would be awhile, they had only just taken Gellert Grindelwald to his sentencing and he had been there far longer than him…there was a long line of people going to hell and it was going in order of death. At that thought Tom Riddle began to grumble about Dumbledore…with such a dark past, and a life of manipulations later in life…and yet Dumbledore didn't have to go to hell.

Dumbledore had been given the job of escorting people to and from their holding cells; but Dumbledore hadn't been near his cell since Grindelwald had been taken away. He knew it would be awhile before anyone would come for him; and he was fine with that…it gave him plenty of time to count the tiles on his ceiling. The tick marks on his walls from various people that had occupied the cell before him…he wasn't new to boredom.

So it came as a slight surprise when Dumbledore opened the jail cell of one Tom Riddle with his usual grandfatherly smile on his face. The former dark lord only rolled his eyes as he was greeted by the elder wizard. Dumbledore chuckled and stepped aside for Tom Riddle to step out of his cell; rolling his eyes yet again Tom did just that.

"What's the meaning of this Dumbledore; you and I both know that given how recently Grindelwald left his cell; I still have a relatively long time before it's my turn to get my sentence." Dumbledore just continued to smile; the ever familiar twinkle in his eyes…Tom groaned inwardly seeing that.

"Normally; you would be correct…however Thanatos would like to make a deal of sorts with you, and I highly recommend that you take it." That piqued Tom's interest not that he would have ever allowed for that to show on his face; so instead he continued on in silence.

"What kind of deal?"

"It is not my place to say." Tom rolled his eyes as he followed Dumbledore through the labyrinth of jail cells and hall ways, up a flight of stairs down three more hall ways and to a door that was just a little too bright and cheery for the former dark lord's taste. In his time here Tom Riddle could say he had seen a fair amount of things…but a door with a nameplate that says Thanatos; takes the cake…not because of the nameplate but what's on the door itself. There was something about _Hello Kitty, My Little Pony, and Scooby Doo_ that did not seem to make a good combination to him.

Dumbledore knocked once, opened the door and walked away, and Tom Riddle reluctantly walked inside, what he saw was quite the contrary to the door as it was dark and resembled something that one would think of a vampire's lair looking like. Sitting behind the desk made of what looked like bones was Thanatos…only he unlike the last time Tom Riddle had seen him he no longer looked like Harry Potter if he were blond and had red eyes. No this time Death looked how he would if he was blond with green eyes…Tom Riddle had long ago learned that how Death portrayed himself (at least in this instance) reflected two things: one being the gender of the person Death was working with and the other being Death's mood.

"Hello there Tommy boy; glad you could make it, I'm sure Albus had informed you of the basic reasoning behind this meeting. So now we move onto what this deal will entail…you see you've caused me quite the little problem." Death's tone was pleasant…almost too pleasant…Tom could play that game as well.

"Have I?" Tom asked this with a casual and innocent tone of voice, and look on his face; he was a Slytherin after all…if there was one thing a Slytherin was good at it was acting…or deception…whichever one preferred to call it.

"Quite…you see you created seven horcruxes: your diary, the diadem, the cup, the locket, Nagini, the resurrection stone; and Harry Potter. As each one was destroyed a piece of your soul was unleashed onto the world…and now I can't seem to locate and capture them all. I've prepared to make a deal with you. You capture and remerge with all seven pieces of your soul and I'm willing to give you something worth your while."

"Such as-" As Tom trailed off Death only rolled his eyes…as though he was getting annoyed by the situation; this only caused Tom to smirk inwardly.

"Well that'd spoil the fun; just know that if you succeed you won't go straight to hell unless you do something to deserve it…again. Or refuse my deal and we can send you to a level seven X prison cell in hell, you know the worst of them all. It's really your decision."

"Fine…but I really don't see how I'm going to pull this off, if my soul pieces are in the mortal plain and I no longer have a mortal body…how am I going to do this?" Death merely smirked in response and handed Tom Riddle his wand; then pulled out a wand of his own and began to say an incantation…and right before being met by oblivion Tom Riddle has to question just what he had done.

"So he accepted…and I really thought he'd put up more of a fight." It was Albus Dumbledore walking back into the room with a slight frown on his face, Death unconsciously shifted forms to look like a twelve year old Dumbledore…if his hair was red and his eyes black. Dumbledore didn't even blink far too used to the transformations of Death.

"Of course he said yes; they always do; sad thing is he thinks that reuniting his soul will be the hard part…no…the hard part will be his reward for successfully uniting his soul back into one." Death laughed inwardly…no uniting the eight pieces of Tom Riddle's soul would be the easy part…the hard part would be the redemption…the second task disguised as his reward…no his reward would be a long ways away.

"He's not going to be happy about it." It wasn't a question…it was a simple statement, and Dumbledore couldn't help but shake his head as he looked at Tom Riddle's unconscious form.

"Nope." And with that, Death snapped his fingers and the figure of Tom Marvolo Riddle disappeared from his office altogether.


	2. The Hunt Begins

Disclaimer: See prologue

A.N. hey guys look who updated on time. Also I recently adopted the story Tripping through time by Coho Comanche, doing some revisions of the published chapters and I'm about done with the first one so expect that soon if you're interested. In the meantime enjoy this and review.

Warnings: This story is unbetaed, couple of oc's later on, and Tom Riddle developing emotions. & Female Harry

Rated T: for Tom Riddle's presence in this story...okay it's because I'm paranoid but whatever.

Updates: Hopefully on Saturdays, otherwise whenever I get the motivation to write for it, we'll have to see.

For your reference unless otherwise stated:

"Speech"

 _Thought_

 _"Parseltongue"_

 _"In head conversations"_

* * *

Chapter One: The Hunt Begins

He wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he was told he'd have to reunite all the pieces of his soul. But to suddenly wake up in a cheap motel in muggle London was not on his list. While he didn't exactly have a list, if he had one it would have included waking up anywhere but in a room that smelled of smoke, had yellow walls torn and stained carpeting and filthy bedsheets. Needless to say it was the fastest he had ever cast a scourgify on himself.

Once he was free of as much filth as he could be Tom did the only thing a deceased Dark Lord sent back into the mortal plain could do. He checked his pockets for money and his wand; his wand luckily was still on him and Tom relaxed slightly upon feeling the warmth of his yew and phoenix feather wand; however the frown on his face deepened upon finding no money. Checking his surroundings with a look of disgust Tom Riddle did the only thing that he could, he went over the facts, reviewed what he already knew.

1\. He was technically dead

2\. Death has made him a deal

3\. He needs to unite all 8 pieces of his soul

4\. He still has no resources

5\. He's in muggle London

6\. He has no money

7\. No transportation

8\. And no idea of where to begin searching

9\. If he succeeds he'll get a reward

10\. He has no idea what it is, just that it's not hell

"Alright, if I was one of my horcruxes and my container was destroyed where would I go?" He couldn't help but groan as he realized he was talking to himself, he knew he was insane but this was something he would have preferred not to have; but he knew talking to oneself was often considered one of the first signs of insanity; becoming a Dark Lord hell-bent on world domination was the second…so far so good.

As Tom thought over where his horcruxes could be he realized that he had no idea where any of his seven horcruxes could possibly be. Each horcrux would be a main piece of his humanity he had rid himself of, and each one would be a different amount of his soul and therefore some would be stronger and more dangerous than others. While others would be easier for him to take on, not that it mattered, he still had the issue of not having any idea as to where to start.

He would need the majority of his horcruxes before making any attempts at the diary, after all the diary contained half of his soul and therefore would be the most dangerous of his horcruxes leaving the horcrux that was in Harry to be the weakest, but it was one of the two that resided within a living being meaning it could prove harder to track. The same would prove for the horcrux that had resided within Nagini.

Tom sighed as he began narrowing down the list of where to start his search, the Gaunt family ring would be the second largest of his soul pieces and therefor would be one of the harder pieces to conquer it would be able to fight back more than the cup or diadem but if he could remerge with that soul piece then he would have no trouble with gaining back the rest of his soul except perhaps with the diary.

Deciding it would be better to start with something that would give him power over the majority of his other horcruxes but wouldn't be the most difficult to face Tom decided that the Gaunt family ring would be the ideal horcrux to begin with; whether that would later prove true he had no idea, but it was what he decided on and to him that was all that mattered in the end.

"Alright, now that I've decided which horcrux to start with, I need to figure out how to find it, there must be a reason that I'm in muggle London, besides some cruel twist of irony on the part of Thanatos with sending me back to the city I was born in." As Tom began to think of why Thanatos would have sent him back to muggle London he ignored the fact he had been talking to himself again, after all surely nobody could take that much silence.

Glancing into the mirror showed Tom that he looked like Tom Riddle and not Voldemort at least, Thanatos had granted him that mercy and not sent him back looking like Voldemort; if he had Tom wouldn't have stood a chance at navigating muggle London or gathering any of his seven horcruxes which he needed to complete his task. Otherwise it was a one way ticket to hell for him and he really wasn't looking forward to that.

"This is brilliant, just brilliant there's no way I'm going to be able to find my horcruxes, there's no way that they'd be the place I had hidden them or where they were destroyed, so where could they possibly be?!" As Tom ranted and raved at himself like the madman he truly was he didn't notice as a darkly clothed figure silently appeared into his cheap motel room and left something on the bed, nor did he notice as they had left.

It was a good fifteen minutes later when Tom had finally stopped his ranting and noticed the slip of paper resting on his bed. Tearing it open he found nothing more than a blank sheet of paper, releasing a frustrated sigh he crumpled the paper up and tossed it in the waste bin, he smirked just a little when it went in perfectly even if it was a bit childish for him to do so.

He didn't know where he was going to go, or how he was going to pull off obtaining any of his horcruxes when he had no money, but he was determined to do it. And if there was thing that was certain it was that when Tom Riddle put his mind to something he did all that was within his power to achieve his goal. He had split his soul seven times in his quest for immortality; he did everything he could in order for him to win the war against the light; though that had not been enough, just like his attempt at gaining immortality.

It was then that Tom began to realize that Death very well may have given him this task with every intention for him to fail. No matter what Tom seemed to set his mind on achieving he had failed in the end. He failed to get the DADA position at Hogwarts, he failed to gain immortality, he couldn't kill Harry Potter and in the end, he failed to win the war he had started.

Tom sat down on the bed wondering if there would even be any point in him trying to unite the pieces of his soul. For the first time in his life Tom Riddle felt that he couldn't achieve his goals, something that hadn't even happened when he was a small child within the orphanage. When he had been at the orphanage he wanted to prove that he was better than the other children, and he'd done that countless times.

When he had arrived at Hogwarts he wanted to prove himself better than the purebloods that had called him mudblood because his last name was that of a muggle. He had wanted to prove that he wasn't just some muggleborn and that he had a magical parent; he had wanted to prove that he was powerful, and he had done those things. He had gone beyond doing those things; he had become Voldemort and briefly taken over the British ministry.

Tom was a strategist, a military leader perhaps, a warrior in a way; he was not meant to live a life of peace, war had plagued much of his Hogwarts years; and it had plagued his adult life from the 1970's a small break in the 80's and up until his death within the 90's. But even before he had declared war he had been gathering recruits, planning and strategizing.

He had been confident that he could win the war; that he could kill Harry Potter and that he could live forever, but he had learned that none of those things were true. And now for the first time in his life Tom didn't know what to think, he didn't know if he could achieve his task or if he should just quit and face the consequences of his actions.

Not knowing was a completely new concept to Tom, not in the sense of knowledge, nobody knew everything so there had been many cases for him growing up in which he had managed to learn what he needed. However this was the first time that he didn't know what to do, he was at a fork in the road and he had no idea in which direction to go.

He was the heir of Salazar Slytherin himself, his self-preservation instincts told him to do what he needed to in order to avoid the punishment that he knew awaited him. Yet it also told him that what Death was asking of him was impossible, that he should quit before he wasted his time. But he was a Slytherin, and Slytherins are ambitious, they stay alive, and they will go to any means to meet their end.

Being a Slytherin mean he was cunning, sly, intelligent, it meant that so long as his self-preservation instincts weren't kicking in, that he would stop at nothing to get what he needed done. Tom may not have had any resources, and he couldn't use any old connections being dead, but he was the heir of Salazar Slytherin and that meant he was a parselmouth and the thing about being able to speak to snakes; it meant that the serpents would always be willing to help him.

Snakes were Tom's first friends and had always been his ally, and in a world where he had no money and was by all rights dead, he would need all the allies he could get; even if they were all snakes. Snakes were slippery creatures, they had the traits of the house of Slytherin and that was something the former Dark Lord could admire. And the thing about snakes was that they would be able to help him find his missing soul pieces.

Tom supposed that the fact he still had his wand should have been enough; with his wand he could accomplish far more than he could even dream of accomplishing without one. The thing was he was still technically dead, and even with a wand it wouldn't be as simple as using a point me spell to find his soul pieces, he would need all the help he could get, but for him at the moment his only help would have to be found within the snakes.

The only thing was, he was entirely sure if he'd be able to get aid from the snakes when he was technically dead; he had to admit that he at least looked like he had a mortal body, like he was alive; but he knew that he wasn't. It wouldn't have been so bad if he would have gained some kind of special abilities being dead but the thing was he hadn't at least that he had known of.

It was strange really, being dead but still in the mortal realm, despite the fact he looked like anyone else who was alive, even if he was paler than most people; he had always been pale. But Tom could tell that nobody would suspect a thing, so long as they didn't notice the fact he wasn't breathing and had no pulse; essentially it seemed as though he was a vampire, without fangs, the need to suck blood and the allergy to light.

He needed a plan, it was after all the Slytherin thing to do, however he really didn't want to try and figure the situation out. He was supposed to be collecting the pieces of his soul and merging them together. Pieces that according to Death were scattered across the world; and that Death itself claimed to be unable to collect. Reuniting his soul pieces would not be easy and given Death's own claim of being unable to do it, it may be impossible.

The thing is Tom Riddle does the impossible; he didn't get to be the most feared and powerful Dark Lord since Salazar Slytherin by doing nothing. Tom was Lord Voldemort and that meant he was willing to do whatever it would take to achieve his goals, including murder; except this task would require for him not to kill anyone as that could prove counterproductive not that Tom really cared about such things but he was trying to avoid his sentence to hell for as long as he could.

Tom silently left his cheap motel room without bothering to check out, after all he hadn't been the one to check in, and he is a former Dark Lord, making the world a terrible place one bad deed at a time. Once outside Tom immediately recognized where he was; he was only two streets down from the orphanage he had grown up in, the birthplace of Lord Voldemort. Not even he the Dark Lord wanted to visit the place that created him the way he was…unless he could burn it to the ground of course.

Now that Tom actually thought about it, it really should have been the first thing on his agenda when he had become Voldemort. While it would have been of no significance to anyone, it would have held a good deal of significance for himself, and he had always been the only person he had cared about, so he was therefore the only one that mattered. But no, he couldn't lose the support of his followers, and while they were muggles, wizards valued children above all else.

His attempt at killing Harry Potter was a necessary sacrifice and one that which his followers had accepted especially when they knew his only rules. Children were to be spared as often as possible along with their mothers, and he absolutely did not allow for raping of anyone. Surprisingly enough it was the last one that always threw his Death Eaters for a loop; he just didn't see how anyone could be so barbaric as to rape someone.

While he actively encouraged torture and even murder he could not and would not condone rape; and honestly not even he knew for certain why it was. It wasn't as though he really cared about people; but the more that he thought about it, he supposed that perhaps that was another thing that stemmed from his childhood at the orphanage.

He may have often been bullied by the other boys at the orphanage, up until that was they learned to fear him, but the thing about it was that he had still seen what some of those older boys did to the girls in the orphanage. It had made him grateful during his childhood that he had been a boy rather than a girl, he knew had he been born a girl he wouldn't have lasted magic or no.

Those boys that were in the orphanage had no mercy for the girls, and they scared the girls so much they would never tell what happened at night. So perhaps it was the memory of what those boys had done to innocent girls; that had led him to ban his Death Eaters from doing the act; perhaps it would have seemed strange to anyone else; but he didn't care how strange his rules seemed to others; or even himself. His rules, no matter how strange, were still his rules.

Everything traced back to his time in the orphanage; his rage, his anger, his hatred for muggles, his desire to keep the mothers and their children to the best he would allow himself. It all stemmed from the orphanage, _perhaps I should have seen this coming,_ Tom mused, _and after all it would be poetic justice for my life to have begun at that wretched place and for Death to have me begin my search there._ And that was what Tom was going to do; he would begin his hunt at the place where it all began.

The birthplace of Lord Voldemort was a rundown old building when he had lived there as a child, but now it was closed down and looked to be falling in. Tom felt no remorse to that fact; it would be hazardous for anyone to attempt to walk through it, but Tom knew he had no choice but to check inside for any hint as to where his horcruxes would be.

Tom silently made his way past the broken gates and through the cracked sidewalk, he continued on up the broken stairs and pulled on the door finding it didn't matter that it was locked, it came right off; clearly the place had been undertaken by termites. Tom walked inside and wrinkled his nose in disgust seeing all the dust and the smell of mold…he most certainly didn't miss this place.

Sighing Tom walked up the staircase carefully so as not to fall through the stairs something that which he had no doubt was extremely possible given the condition of the front door, and sure enough by the third step he found his foot falling through, sighing he cast the strengthening charm _fortifico_ on the rest of the stairs in order to prevent any more steps collapsing. He had to admit it was actually a bad idea for him to have not cast the spell immediately, especially when he knew that it would happen…it was an oversight he should have never made.

Now that he was confident that he wouldn't have to worry about any more stairs breaking, Tom continued his way up the stairs, once he reached the top he cast the charm once again. Once he was certain he wouldn't be falling through the floors he walked down the halls until he reached the last door on the right, carefully he opened the door to reveal his old room. It was covered in layers of dust; but it was obvious that someone magical had been there first.

" _Magicae Revelare"_ Casting the spell revealed the magical traces within the room; other than Dumbledore's magic on the wardrobe the only magic in the room belonged to him. However there were some differences, his signature had variances here and there; a difference between a complete soul, a partial soul, and there was one that appeared ripped, that was the Horcrux's magical signature. So at least one of his soul pieces had been here.

Tom once again cast the strengthening charm on the room before he began to scour the room for even the slightest clue, but it didn't take long, he found an atlas opened up to show a map of the United States; Tom had never had interest in America when he had been in school; not enough to go there at least; it had been somewhere he thought he could go if he successfully conquered Britain and the rest of Europe, the United States was a powerhouse in both the magical and muggle worlds.

It was bearing that in mind that Tom made his decision, he would begin his search in the States; if he was going to find whichever horcrux had been there then that was where he'd have to look; he could only hope that the one he'd find would be the ring; or even anything else so long as it wasn't the diary; it was the strongest of his horcruxes and therefor would be the most dangerous for him to try to obtain.

His next issue would be finding out how to get there, and where to look once he was there; he would figure that out later he supposed. His most important task at the moment will be getting to the States once there he supposed he had a lot of places to check before he would find his Horcrux; luckily though there was a lot you could do with a spell to find someone's magical signature; and thing about the States was that while in most aspects they were more tolerant ; they were rather strict in keeping magicals from muggles…very strict

It was that thought that led Tom to believe only one thing could be the case; wherever this horcrux was in the States; it was in the muggle community. After all Tom may have always hated muggles but he wasn't much of a fan of rules either; knowing himself as well as he did he'd choose to remain in the muggle world over the magical; it'd be easier him to break magical laws and regulations; and considering how lax they were about dark magic; he would enjoy practicing the dark arts and discreetly practice the darker things that were less legal.

Knowing that; Tom began to contemplate the various ways that he could use in order to travel from London to the States; but his perhaps biggest challenge will be finding where in the States he would need to go in order to find his soul piece. Tom supposed that perhaps he could handle things one item at a time; first he would need to find how he was going to get the states; then he could look at where he would go searching for his horcrux once he got there; though he wasn't entirely sure how everything would turn out.

Sighing Tom down on his old bed and laid back staring at the ceiling; he had no idea how he was going to pull of uniting his soul pieces but he knew that if he didn't he wouldn't like the consequences. He was Tom Riddle; he had a knack for figuring things out; he just needed to review the facts again; after all that would help him to think of a solution surely.

1\. He was still technically dead

2\. Death has made him a deal

3\. He needs to unite all 8 pieces of his soul

4\. He still has no resources

5\. He's in muggle London

6\. He has no money

7\. No transportation

8\. And now knew he was going to the States to start his search

9\. If he succeeds he'll get a reward

10\. He has no idea what it is, just that it's not hell

11\. Getting to the states would require expensive transportation

12\. Magical transportation might not be his best option

Tom wasn't sure what he was going to do for transportation; especially given he didn't have any money; but he knew that apparition would be too risky; that distance without having previously been there could lead to severe splinching. An international port key would have to come from the ministry, there was no way that he could create his own illegal one; not in his current circumstances. The Knight Bus would be too expensive; and international floo powder was more than expensive.

Which left him out of magical means of transportation; sighing Tom began to think of methods of muggle transportation; driving wasn't possible. He could try a plane, but he couldn't afford to buy a ticket and sneaking on board wouldn't be an easy task. He supposed he could always steal some money from muggles; but that wouldn't be easy; and who knew what his magic could do to a muggle plane even if he wouldn't be using it.

He supposed he could find a ship that was headed towards the States; that would be something simple enough for him to do. The chances were that his magic wouldn't interfere with any type of ship; a cargo ship would probably be easiest for him to sneak on; but if he had to get on a cruise ship he could deal with that. He was the heir of Salazar Slytherin and that meant he was cunning and intelligent; surely he could decipher a way to get from London to the States; it was just a matter of how and when.

His fastest option, while avoiding all magical types of transportation, would be flying; he'd fly via broom but he knew that would take too long. All in all Tom wasn't sure how he would get to the States and for some reason he didn't really care; he was dead after all, it didn't matter in the end what he did; he was already facing the worst punishments in hell. No matter he did he couldn't possibly make the situation any worse; he was at rock bottom.

His only options were to fix his soul, or got to hell but it didn't matter, not really. Either way he was screwed over he knew it. Thanatos said itself that it had been having trouble locating all of the pieces of his soul, so Tom supposed maybe he was on an impossible mission, but he didn't really care. Even if it meant that he would never succeed, he would still have the advantage of not being in hell; he'd end up there in the end, but in the meantime he could roam around the world until he was either taken back by Thanatos or succeeded in managing to fix his soul…the former was more likely.

Sighing Tom sat up on the bed and made his way back down to the main floor, he walked through the door, down the sidewalk and out onto the streets of London. It wouldn't be easy, but he could do it; he could find the money he would need to buy a plane ticket to the states; but it wouldn't be cheap a few hundred pounds probably; he wasn't really sure. Tom hadn't dealt with muggle currency since he graduated Hogwarts.

However he pulled it off Tom knew one thing was for certain it wouldn't be easily accomplished, he didn't have a passport so he'd be slowed up at the airport by having to obliviate people in security. Yet if he chose to stowaway on a ship of some sort that would leave him to lose time; and Tom wasn't really sure if he had any time to kill. He supposed that if he took a ship it would be safer; there'd be less risk of magical interference with the systems.

There was also the fact he hated ships; he didn't get seasick or anything but a ship would take forever to get him to the States and he'd be left with very little to do…he could only wish that he had some manor or another of getting there that wouldn't be quite so difficult; but he knew he wouldn't be quite so lucky; he'd just have to carefully think between taking a ship and a plane and decide what the better decision would be.

All in all he supposed that of the two choices the airplane would be more interesting; there would be the risk of his magic; and all the security; and having to steal the money to buy his ticket. All in all taking a flight to the states would be more interesting, and therefore it would be more risky. If there was one thing that he preferred it would be the more entertaining option, that's what he always preferred. It was led him into exploring the Dark Arts and later on to travel the world; Albania mostly.

Tom had always had a love for adventure; even if he would never admit it aloud, he had always enjoyed exploring as a small child. He wanted to know everything that he could; and in order for him to do that he needed to explore and that led to adventure, it was something he could do on his own and not seem overly strange for; after all normal children tried to go on adventures. There was something about danger that Tom was attracted to, It was why he had always loved Defense Against the Dark Arts and had loved the Dark Arts when he had discovered them as well.

Those were things he had been good at, and he had even pursued his masteries in the subjects; Defense Against the Dark Arts had been easy to pursue, there was nothing wrong with that. It was the Dark Arts that had been tricky for him to get a mastery in; he had been unable to get it done in Britain; it was one of the things he pursued during his travels in Albania, there had been where he had gotten his mastery in the subject.

It had been the easiest mastery he had ever achieved, but by the time he took the test he was far too lost in the subject; by then he had three horcruxes. By then he had delved too deep too fast and was rapidly losing his sanity; it was by the time he returned to Hogwarts for an interview with Dumbledore he had bloodshot eyes; and sallow skin; he should have grown to be far more handsome than he had been as a student instead he was too far gone in the dark arts.

Tom didn't regret it though, his time in the Dark Arts was not something he would regret and he wouldn't stray from their use, no matter what Death threatened him with. The Dark Arts brought him more adventure so to speak, and so he would continue with them no matter how things turned out. It was bearing that in mind that he decided that he would take a plane to the States…flying would be more entertaining; and Tom loved adventure.


	3. Gaunt Family Ring

Disclaimer: See prologue

A.N. So I've started college, so updates may be slow for awhile.

Warnings: This story is unbetaed, couple of oc's later on, and Tom Riddle developing emotions. & Female Harry

Rated T: for Tom Riddle's presence in this story...okay it's because I'm paranoid but whatever.

Updates: Hopefully on Saturdays, otherwise whenever I get the motivation to write for it, we'll have to see.

For your reference unless otherwise stated:

"Speech"

 _Thought_

 _"Parseltongue"_

 _"In head conversations"_

* * *

Chapter 2 Gaunt Family Ring

Tom wasn't sure what he expected to see upon finding the first of the seven soul pieces he would have to unite with his own eighth piece but this most certainly wasn't what he had expected. There was something about seeing his soul piece sitting at a pub that just didn't make sense to him; he didn't drink often and the most he had ever drank was a glass of wine, maybe once in a blue moon he'd have a fire-whiskey but other than that…nothing that could justify his horcrux being in a pub drinking…a muggle pub at that.

Tom wasn't sure what worried him the most, the fact his soul piece was drinking in a muggle pub, the fact that he was surrounded by muggle girls or the fact that he appeared to be corporal, he'd just ignore the fact he was also dressed like a muggle; after all Tom couldn't complain seeing as the only outfit he had was the one he woke up in and that was very much muggle clothes.

Tom sighed as he considered the situation, there was no way he could do this subtly he'd have to get his horcrux alone, and he knew his horcrux would fight him on that. _Luckily he at least would never suspect me of trying to rejoin with him._ But as this thought came to Tom another problem occurred to him, in order to undo a horcrux, one had to feel true remorse for the murder they had used to create it.

Out of all the murders Tom had used in order to create his horcruxes, the one he had used to create this particular Horcrux was the one he had wanted the most. He had used the murder of his muggle father, and Tom knew that he would not be able to feel true remorse for that, but he needed this horcrux. After all if he didn't get it now he may not be able to find it again, and it would give him enough power to get control over the majority of his other horcruxes.

Putting the concern of how he was going to merge with his soul piece to the back of his mind, Tom put on his most charming smile and he walked over to where his soul piece was sitting. As soon as he was close enough he cleared his throat gaining the attention of both his horcrux and the four girls that were fawning over him. His soul piece managed to keep from showing any worry or shock instead he broke out into a wide grin.

"Tommy; who's this?" At the name Tommy both Tom and his soul piece got a dangerous glint their eyes, how dare some worthless muggle call them that sickening name. Tom quirked a brow at his horcrux and shook his head, while the soul piece just leaned back in his chair while one of the muggle girl's moved to sit on his lap kissing his cheek, Tom rolled his eyes at that.

"Ladies, this is my twin brother Albus; Albus this is Monica, Annie, Amber and Jessica." Tom narrowed his eyes at his so called twin brother; he was going to kill him, he didn't know how he was going to do it, but he was going to do it. He absolutely did not want to be called Albus, not after everything in his life that had involved the old wizard.

"Sorry to break up the fun, but I need to have a little chat with my brother here, in private preferably, surely you can understand ladies." The girls all frowned but they did get up and leave, the horcrux narrowed his eyes at the main soul piece but Tom just crossed his arms and narrowed his own eyes in turn, unaware of the fact that they had flashed red.

"You're ruining my fun Tom; why you got to do that; kick back relax and have a beer; we're free now, you're dead, learn to have fun; it's what I did. Well I'll admit not completely but I mean I'm enjoying all of these girls I got to admit. Surely even you of all people can learn to appreciate something as simple as beautiful girls."

Tom just looked at his horcrux with disgust; he just could not understand how his soul piece could possibly be acting so…repulsively. He had done several things in his years but to go so far as to flirt with muggles, to be seated in a rather unsavory muggle pub; no these were not things Tom would do without very, _very_ good motivation, he would be either searching for something, or someone, perhaps information, but this…this did not add up.

"I find it rather repulsive actually, to think that one of my own soul pieces could be in a place like this." His horcrux seemed confused for the briefest of seconds if even that before he seemed to comprehend exactly what was being said. The ring just smirked and suddenly Tom had a feeling he wasn't going to like what would come from his mouth next.

"Well there was this fire at the strip club, so it's not reopened yet; so this is where I've been finding my entertainment." Tom did not believe that for one second, not even a hundredth of a second; he didn't care what the horcrux claimed, and people could laugh all they want; Tom knew the stories would still be stuck in the mind of his horcrux, the stories about going blind…he most certainly had trouble forgetting them, even if he had never really believed it, when he was younger he would take no such risk as to go blind; that and he had no desire for such things.

"I'm not even going to pretend to believe that; you're pathetic though I will admit it, hanging around a muggle pub, flirting with muggle women. I know for certain when I was you I would have never have even so much as entertained the thought but I suppose we're both far from the person I was when I created you; though it seems one of us has come further than the other."

"Oh right you are; tell me how was it, being Lord Voldemort was it everything you dreamed of, or were you so caught up in the insanity you threw yourself into by splitting your soul into a total of eight pieces that you had completely forgotten what it was that you had in mind. The fear of the name Voldemort, I remember that being in the original plans, killing innocent children. That was never in the plans Tom; and the purebloods? You used to scoff at LeStrange when he suggested killing off the muggleborns."

"I made my mistakes and now I am being given one chance at avoiding hell, and that is by gathering and uniting the pieces of my soul. I haven't exactly worked out how I'll do that as of yet. As we all know there is one murder I'll never feel remorse for. But that is beside the point, the point is I'm going to need your help in tracking and capturing the other horcruxes."

"Let me get this straight, you want me to come with you to help capture the other freed horcruxes so you can merge with us and get some get out of hell free card. I don't think so, I have my own life now and I have absolutely no intentions of letting you screw it up; just leave things how they are, live and let live and all those other weird sayings. My point is…fuck off Riddle, I'm staying right here and there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it."

Tom wished he could say that he didn't let his horcrux get to him, but the truth of the matter was, he was annoyed and he had no intentions of allowing his horcrux to think he was in control. Tom Riddle never lets others have control, he takes it whenever possible. Tom also wished that he hadn't thrown the first punch, but then he would be lying, just as he would be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy the fact he had broken the soul piece's nose.

The ring for his part managed to maintain his composure, even after being punched in the face, but the vindictive look on the former Dark Lord's face did not leave the horcrux feeling very good. It probably would have been wiser had he chosen to be the better person and walked away; but horcrux or not he was still Tom Riddle, and that meant he had the same survival instincts from the orphanage.

Before learning to use his magic, Tom's only choice in the orphanage was to run and hide or stand and fight; eventually he chose to stand and fight; though it was rare that he did once he found his magic. Some would be shocked that the heir of Slytherin would choose to stand and fight like a Gryffindor, but he was a Slytherin through and through and knew that if you establish yourself well then there is nothing to fear; and he had always been better than the pathetic muggles; it was fight or die in the orphanage because if you did not fight, you did not eat…at least amongst the boys.

So it was with that ingrained into his mind that he aimed a punch at his counterpart's face, only for it to be dodged and get himself a knee to the stomach. His response was to try sweeping his opponent's legs out from beneath him but Tom Riddle was Voldemort and he had too much battle experience to let something trip him up; whether it was magical or muggle fighting.

The former Dark Lord's next move was to flip his horcrux over his shoulder; he then picked him up and slammed him against the wall. Tom put an arm in front of his counterpart's throat, he made it so that he couldn't get away; the horcrux struggled for a few minutes before he stilled choosing to instead glare at his counterpart. Tom in turn smirked, there was nothing that he loved more than when he was victorious, no matter what the situation was and in this situation he needed to put his horcrux in his place. Tom narrowed his eyes into an icy glare; there was no feeling in them, and his face left no room for arguments.

"No. You listen here, you listen now, and you listen well. You will come with me to find the rest of the soul pieces and you will keep your mouth shut. If I hear any complaints then I will rearrange that pretty face of yours, don't think because you were a part of me once, that you are a part of who I am; that it means I won't hurt you. I have fucked up my life in so many ways and this…this is my one shot to stay out of hell and I will not let you fuck it up; understood?"

His tone was dark, it left no room for argument, were it anyone else they probably would have peed their pants; but this wasn't just anyone, it was a part of who Tom was. His voice was calm and collected, and that was what made it intimidating, it would likely intimidate the Death Eaters far more than the quiet hissing voice that Tom had developed later in his years. This voice didn't intimidate the younger soul piece though, instead he laughed as though he were Bellatrix LeStrange.

"Are you shitting me, you are absolutely full of it, you aren't doing this because you fucked our life up, you loved every minute of it. You just don't want to go to hell, I'm not a fool Tom, Death he made that same offer to all of us, why do you think he can't find any of us, or left you with no resources other than a wand. It's because the rest of us took our cash, our galleons or whatever and hit the road. He wants you to collect us, so that he doesn't have to, and so he can sentence us all to hell."

"He wouldn't have given all of you the task, or have you forgotten, one of you would have had to have been first?" At this the horcrux laughed in a way that would have sent shivers up the spines of any onlookers, as it was between the silencing charm and the notice-me-not; it was rather hard for anyone to be able to hear or see them; which worked perfectly for Tom, after all he didn't need for anyone to notice anything they shouldn't have.

"The mother fucking Diary Tom, he ditched Death and has been on the run ever since, he is crazy, he's got half of our soul Tom. He escaped and Death can't find him, he's why we're all here, Death just wants him caught, and he's willing to sacrifice you in order to do it, but it won't happen." Tom narrowed his eyes but his horcrux didn't seem intimidated by this, rather he seemed to find it amusing, Tom just glared, he wasn't happy about any of his situation.

"You truly don't realize what I am capable of, we were sixteen when we created our first horcrux, a mere fifth year. When we killed Myrtle and created that diary, I was seventeen when I created you, curious isn't how one year makes you think you can't take on the diary. I lived seventy-one years, people dared not to speak my name and no I was not invincible, and I may deserve hell as much as I hate to admit it, but you see; I'm not going down without a fight."

"You won't be able to do it, you won't have what it takes to piece your soul back together, so I don't know why you would even consider trying, it's over Riddle, time to move on. You can join the club and flee Death like the rest of us, there is a reason he has been unable to gather us, and if you think that it's changed then you're wrong. You see the only one capable of tracking us is us, I can only track the Diary, the locket can track us both, then the cup, the diadem, and so and so forth. You're the only one who can track us all Tom."

"And you are a fool if you think that I cannot be tracked by another; do you not understand that Harry Potter has the Deathly Hallows, I may have been locked away, but I've learned enough to know that Harry Potter can find every one of us. So should Death need aid in tracking us, which I sincerely doubt that he would then it is the boy-who-lived who he will go to, he killed us all once, he can do it again."

The ring looked at his counterpart curiously, briefly wondering if what he said was true, then he sighed knowing that it had to be, Harry Bloody Potter would be able to track them all and turn them over to Death. Their only hope was with Tom being able to track them all down, and some way, somehow figure out a way in which to unite them all into one soul piece or they would face hell together.

"I hate the fact that you're right; Potter would be able to track us, and given how things ended between the two of you, I don't think he'd be all that keen to help us avoid our sentence to hell. Very well, I will tag along, but you must convince the others on your own accord, and don't think I won't laugh when you fail and find yourself in hell and the rest of us flee to the outreaches of the world once again."

"Believe what you will, I succeed in all of my endeavors, and you will see that soon." The ring just scoffed, he knew that he didn't succeed in achieving immortality and he sure as hell didn't succeed in killing Harry Potter, but he knew it would be pointless to stand there and argue about that with his main piece, he knew he was stubborn and prideful.

"Fine; whatever you say, but we're not going until tomorrow, I have plans with those muggle girls you made walk away and I am going to have my fun with them, whether you like it or not." Tom narrowed his eyes at the ring; there was no way in hell that he was going to let his horcrux do that. He would not allow for it to happen.

"Not happening." The horcrux frowned and seemed to weigh his options before he attempted to walk away, Tom immediately grabbed him by the throat and slammed him back into the wall. Tom smirked as his horcrux glared at him, Tom may have been the smaller soul piece, and therefor was supposed to be weaker, but he was also the main one and he had not lazed around like his horcruxes.

"You're a real prat do you know that?" Tom glared at his horcrux his eyes glowing a bright red, he hated when he was disrespected and his horcrux was more disrespectful to him than even Harry Potter had been, and that…that was saying a lot. But then Tom smirked, he may have been older than his horcrux but he was more powerful and he was not going to let his horcrux forget that anytime soon.

Tom increased the pressure around the ring's throat and soon the horcrux was gasping for breath, clawing at Tom's hand as he tried to break free. Tom smirked at his soul piece vindictively, and as his horcrux gained a purple color he dropped him to the ground and watched the horcrux grab at his throat as he gasped for air, rapidly, coughing as he did so, trying to catch his breath.

"Let me make one thing very clear to you, I don't care who you think you are, you are just a horcrux and you are pathetic. You have no authority over me and you'll do well to remember that the next time you try insulting me. I was merciful with you this time, but I am not above choking the life out of my own horcrux, after all, you are already dead. Though I suppose if I did that you'd be immediately transported back to Thanatos, and you don't want that do you?"

"You're a sick bastard." Tom just shook his head as he kicked his horcrux in the stomach, he knew he was being what would be considered cruel, but he needed his horcrux to obey him so that he would have fewer issues in gathering his other soul pieces, if this was how it would have to be with all of them. Then that was something that Tom was willing to do, he _was not_ going to hell.

"I suggest you learn now before we have to have another lesson, Lord Voldemort does not forgive." With that Tom turned from his horcrux and exited the muggle pub before leaning on the wall beside the door, he would give his horcrux ten minutes to come out. He knew he wouldn't try to run, the ring had learned his lesson about getting on Tom's bad side and knew he would be able to track him again.

Not that Tom wanted to have to track down his horcrux again, he was quite content with just getting his horcruxes as soon as he found them, but he knew himself well enough to know there was a good chance the horcrux would flee. But he also knew his self-preservation would win out in the end, it almost always did, it's how he survived as Voldemort so long, it was only when it came to Harry Potter he seemed to lack in self-preservation, thus why his downfall came to be.

Sure enough right at the ten minute mark the ring horcrux exited the pub still rubbing at his throat, Tom smirked t that. Perhaps this horcrux would be wise enough to warn all the others not to cross him, though he knew his own stubbornness well, he would never admit to being second best, not even to himself against himself. Just like he would never share with anyone, himself included.

"So what's the plan exactly." Tom smirked at that, he could tell his horcrux that there was no plan, he was certain that tidbit of information would go unappreciated, but he didn't have any reason to tell his horcrux anything, after all he made it more difficult than necessary when they were in the pub. His horcrux needed to learn obedience, to him and him alone.

"The plan for now is not any of your concern, perhaps try asking again later when I am in a more pleasant mood, as it is you have forced my hand to muggle violence and now I'm not feeling all that generous, should you bold enough to step out of line again, I will end my mercy and send you back to Thanatos, to reserve us a spot in hell; is that understood?"

"You wouldn't send me to hell." Tom quirked a brow, the ring most definitely didn't sound all that confident in his words, this of course satisfied Tom. He didn't want his horcrux to be confident, to feel that he was safe, no he wanted his horcrux to be nervous and on edge, make the others more jumpy when they found them. He was going to use his treatment of this horcrux to his advantage.

"Well if you're certain go ahead and test me, but you should know as well as I, that I do not bluff, but what would I know?" The ring seemed to go quiet at that, as he glared daggers at the main soul piece, Tom smirked as he began walking away from the pub, so far everything was going better than he had initially thought.

If Tom was being honest with himself he would have thought that his horcrux would have put up much more of a fight. He would have thought the ring would be more of a challenge being the second largest piece of his soul, he was mistaken and Tom hated when he was mistaken. He remembered when he had been mistaken and thought that he was mistaken about Harry Potter showing up in the woods.

The Potter brat did show up, he even stood still while Tom as Lord Voldemort cast the killing curse upon him. He was mistaken to trust anyone but himself to check that the Potter boy was indeed dead, he was mistaken to believe that after all that time Harry Potter would die from the very curse that began all of his troubles in the first place.

No Tom did not like it when he was mistaken and therefor would do his best to avoid being mistaken again, mistakes after all, were what led to his downfall. He had mistook Lily Potter nee Evans for just another muggleborn witch; just another mother, he had underestimated her love for Harry; that love in combination with the courage of James Potter is what led to the protection over Harry Potter. James Potter was the epitome of a Gryffindor, he went to face the most powerful Dark Lord in history, without a wand.

It was Gryffindors that always caused Tom the most trouble as Lord Voldemort, first Dumbledore all throughout his schooling, the Potter family, and Pettigrew. The biggest thorn in his side had always been Harry Potter though, the brat-who-lived. It was his death that Tom had wanted even more than Dumbledore's and when he finally had it, the boy just had to come back to life.

Of course Tom knew now what he hadn't known then, Harry Potter was immortal, he was not born that way, but when the killing curse rebounded he gained a second life by becoming a living horcrux. When he gathered the Deathly Hallows, that was when he became immortal, even now that the horcrux was gone, Harry Potter would never be able to die.

Tom was glad that his horcrux had shut up so that he could get lost within his thoughts, he had been doing that a lot lately. When one is placed in one of Death's holding cells, one learns to think a lot as there are few other ways in which one could occupy there time. Tom needed a plan, something to tell the horcrux when he became persistent in his asking.

Tom wasn't a fool, he knew his horcrux would attempt to goad him into telling him his plans, and he also knew that sooner or later he would give in and reveal that he had no plans. That was if he didn't come up with a plan between now and then. It wasn't impossible to do, he was Tom Riddle after all, if there was thing he was good at; it was planning…it was the Slytherin thing to do after all.

"So where are we going anyways?" Tom sighed, he had enjoyed the silence while it lasted, but he didn't expect for his much younger horcrux to have the same appreciation for the silence that he held. Sure he had always enjoyed the silence even as a small child, but at that age he had loved to hear himself talk as loath as he was to admit it. He had no doubt that the ring still very much loved to hear himself talk.

He supposed it was better than Malfoy, after all there was nobody on the planet, more conceited, more selfish, more prideful, more in love with themselves than a Malfoy. He had originally just thought it was Abraxas, but then he met his classmate's father and began to rethink his analysis. Then came Lucius, just as bad as Abraxas, if not worse. Then there was Draco, the spoiled little prince, who had daddy issues.

Tom briefly wondered how it was that the Potter brat never accused him of having daddy issues, it was a thought that was almost worth looking into… _almost._ "If you must know, we are going, and that is all that you need to know, now shut up unless you want to see what I can do when I involve magic in my fighting." The horcrux immediately silenced himself, no doubt not wanting to find out, after all he had already learned the hard way that Tom was a formidable opponent within a muggle fight.

Most people would assume that the former Dark Lord who campaigned for blood surpremist would never stoop so low as to use muggle methods of fighting. Perhaps there was a time when that statement was true, but Tom knew that without a wand most opponents in the wizarding world were helpless, and a muggle fight would be easy to win. Yet still there were a select few wizards that knew how to fight as a muggle, these ones were the most dangerous and so Tom did not laze around, and honed his muggle fighting skills just as much as he had his magic.

Not that he would ever admit that aloud to anyone, after all it couldn't get out that the Dark Lord knew how to fight like a muggle; it would be valuable blackmail material in some circles. Morgana knew that Narcissa often would blackmail Lucius into doing all kinds of things he didn't want to because she knew about the time he and Arthur Weasley started to fight…like muggles…and the worst part…Lucius lost.

Of course it shouldn't have been much of a surprise that Lucius lost, he was after all a Malfoy, and then there was Arthur Weasley, usually more of a pacifist. However he had seven children, six of which were sons, and amongst them there was the dragon tamer, the curse breaker and the Weasley Twins. Enough was said with the Weasley twins for anyone to understand how Arthur had won that fight. Anyone who could handle the Weasley twins deserved respect, even if they were blood traitors.

Fred and George Weasley reminded Tom of a much friendlier version of Rodolphus and Rabastan LeStrange, and just as their name implied; they were strange. He had always silently took amusement in the fact their last name practically meant the strange…especially with Bellatrix. Bellatrix the Strange couldn't have been a more true statement. Though her husband and brother-in-law were nearly just as strange as her, they were just not quite as strange as Bella.

Not of course that Tom would admit to finding something amusing; there were somethings that were best left not known to the world. The fact that the former Dark Lord Voldemort could find humor in things other than torture was not one such thing that should be shared with the world. He shuddered to know what people like Rita Skeeter would do with such information.

He almost wished that he could pop in on the annoying reporter and have a little torture session, but he knew that he couldn't. Not at least if he didn't want to go to hell, otherwise he had a feeling that he was more than welcome to do anything exactly as he pleased. Tom briefly wondered how much longer his horcrux would remain silent, but soon decide to banish the thought from his mind less he cause the horcrux to speak up again.

It was getting late, and they would soon need to make camp for the night; he supposed it would be then his horcrux would find out how under-supplied they would be for their trip. But there was nothing Tom could do; he had no money, little access to his magic currently.


	4. What is Fun?

Disclaimer: See prologue

A.N. Look I'm still alive, for now; I'm just going to assume not too many of you want me dead for not updating in so long; sorry about that but it should be more frequent now, I always have trouble with chapter 3 when I'm writing no matter what it is. So now that I finally have finished chapter three we should be more frequently updated.

Warnings: This story is unbetaed, couple of oc's later on, and Tom Riddle developing emotions. & Female Harry

Rated T: for Tom Riddle's presence in this story; actually it's more for things the Ring Horcrux says but close enough.

Updates: Hopefully on Saturdays, otherwise at least once a month.

For your reference unless otherwise stated:

"Speech"

 _Thought_

 _"Parseltongue"_

 _"In head conversations"_

* * *

Chapter 3 What is Fun?

Tom groaned when he woke up to rain falling on him, he really wished they had given him at least a little bit of money, at least enough so he could get a room in a cheap motel, or buy a cheap tent, or even a sleeping bag; instead he was stuck camping out on the ground with what he could transfigure, and no real shelter; and to top it off now he was stuck with the ring horcrux.

"You know this sucks; you're supposed to be one of the most powerful wizards to have ever lived, like at least top ten and you're fucking telling me that you couldn't transfigure a tent that could last the entire night or something, I mean if you can't even do that much you should have given me the wand." Tom frowned at that, focusing less on the fact that his own soul was insulting him and more on the fact he didn't recall a time when he swore so much, leading him to the question of whether or not horcruxes affect one's memory.

"You're fucking ignoring me right now aren't you, I know that look, it's the look you get when you're presented with a question you want to solve. We don't have time for solving problems Riddle, we have bigger issues." _Or perhaps,_ Tom thought, _it's actually possible for them to develop their own personalities._ As Tom thought over that last thought he decided it was decisively possible.

"My apologies but at the moment the amount of my own magic that I am allowed to access isn't adequate to last through the night apparently. And quite frankly I don't recall myself ever having been so big on swearing." His counterpart simply flipped him the bird before tossing his hands in the air dramatically, Tom was really leaning towards that last thought.

"By Merlin, are you going to be like this the whole time, how did I ever grow into someone so old and boring. I mean honestly, if I was ever that boring I think I'd kill someone, then again, that may explain a few things. Clearly when you lost me you lost your ability to have fun, if this is how you're going to be I'm staying behind, I mean if you're going to kidnap me you could at least do me the favor of making this fun, an adventure even, just not boring."

"It would seem that those American's have been a bad influence on you, how you could possibly be a part of my soul is beyond me." If this is what he had to look forward to for the coming months or years then he would much rather be back in his cell enduring the torture that was boredom.

"I beg to differ, America has been a great influence on me, they unlike you know how to have fun like did you know they practically will let anyone buy fireworks, and use them, not the professional grade ones, those require a license but regular fireworks, I saw little kids lighting fireworks of on the Fourth of July, and that's normal, they even let them shoot them off in the middle of the street, the _street_! I mean I was told that every state or really even town has their own laws about buying, selling and shooting off fireworks, but still!"

"And I care about laws regarding fireworks in the States because?" There was no missing Tom's blatant disdain as he spoke, and his horcrux obviously had caught it as well, not that Tom really gave a care as to what his horcrux thought. Then again he had never really cared much for the opinions of others regardless of who they were, the only opinion that truly mattered was his own.

"It proves my point, the majority of the people here know how to have fun, and you do not, all you ever did was act the perfect student in school." Yes he acted the perfect student nobody aside from Dumbledore ever suspected a thing and were left completely bewildered when he began to go through life as Lord Voldemort; starting a war against the muggleborns and light wizards.

"Sounds to me like they're a bunch of-" But Tom never finished what he was about to say as his horcrux quickly put a hand over his mouth and looked around widely. Tom for his part remained to keep his irritation level down enough to only express it through a scowl rather than through violence; no matter how tempting the latter was.

"Ah don't insult them, I think they have ears everywhere, you don't insult them…someone's bound to start a fight if you do." Apparently his horcrux was more paranoid than Mad-Eye Moody as well, they were a ways from the nearest civilization there was no possible way anyone could hear them. At least that's what Tom reasoned.

"You're ridiculous, now let's go." His horcrux just huffed as though he thought that Tom was the one that was being ridiculous, but he wasn't the one that was worried about people getting offended should he insult them. He was a Dark Lord, he was going to say things to insult people it was practically a part of the job description as far as he was going to be concerned, so his horcrux shouldn't have cared.

"Fine we can go, but only if you bring me back for their Fourth of July celebrations next year." Tom looked at his counterpart with crossed arms and a raised brow. He had never been very big on holidays in general, but one where people blew things up definitely wasn't on his to do list of celebrations.

"You do know that they celebrate their victory against Britain on that day right?" His horcrux just scoffed as though he saw no relation to the fireworks and the purpose behind why the Americans even celebrated that holiday. He probably was well aware of the relation, but simply didn't care, even still he didn't recall a time when he had been so…care free.

"Details." At that Tom scoffed, details could be very important things, details are what kept him from getting caught all those years he was at Hogwarts. Details are how nobody knew what he was until he was prepared for them to know, details is how he had become the Dark Lord. Despite his horcrux's belief details no matter the subject matter could be very crucial.

"How you could possibly be a part of me is beyond me." He had always been responsible from even a young age, always more mature than the other children around him, including those who were older than him. So it was beyond him how this horcrux who was meant to be a part of him could be so blatantly immature.

"I'm the fun part of you is why, I wasn't allowed to be expressed in the orphanage, and you chose not to let me be expressed at Hogwarts, therefore I am the under-nurtured part of your personality, that for a year and a few months has been enjoying American life. I still haven't figured out what exactly this American Dream everyone talks about is, or how to actually achieve it or if you can, but it is on my agenda."

"Personally I do not see any benefit in fulfilling your request, but I suppose that I could consider it, as long as you recognize the fact that I have no intentions of still being here by that time and have every intention of having already collected every soul piece and moving on with my after life."

"Why are you even trying to do this, after all think about it, you'll never and I mean never be able to feel the remorse it'll require for you to absorb me, so why bother with a task you can't complete?" Tom sighed, he knew the horcrux was right, but that didn't mean he was going to just give up, he was a Slytherin and with his ambitions quitting wasn't much of an option.

"The chances are I won't be able to feel true remorse for any of them, but if we can gather all of the horcruxes, maybe we could find some kind of alternative to merging them all with my soul. For now we're going to have to just play this by ear, we've managed to collect you after all; and by we; I mean me, as you've done nothing." The horcrux just rolled his eyes at the main soul piece, knowing that was a terrible suggestion; which it was but Tom wasn't planning to admit that.

"Face it, you'll never pull it off, how much time did Death give you to do this anyways, because for some reason I really doubt you can even come close to finding all of the other soul pieces by the time your time limit expires." Tom rolled his eyes, then frowned as he thought about what his horcrux had asked him, he couldn't recall a time limit being set by Death, but he was sure that he had to of had one. It wouldn't make sense for Death not to give him a time limit, because then he could be gone for centuries if not longer without any consequences.

"He didn't which means we're just going to wing it, even if it's not exactly a very Slytherin thing for us to do; it's not exactly easy to set up a time based plan without having some kind of time limit to base the plan off of after all. It hopefully won't take too long however as we don't exactly have any money for food or anything else for that matter." The horcrux just scoffed at that before he began walking north; Tom narrowed his eyes at his horcrux in suspicion…he knew that scoff…he knew it well. "How much do you have?!"

"How much what Tom; I mean that's a rather vague statement." Tom narrowed his eyes, then smirked, he was after all the only one of them that had a wand; though he supposed that they both could do wandless magic so the point was moot. With a wordless and wandless _Levicorpus_ Tom's ring horcrux turned upside down in the air with an indignant shout. Tom merely widened his smirk, Severus hadn't been born by the time he had created that horcrux, and therefore he wouldn't know its counter either.

"Such a shame really; you see I know the counter for that particular spell, but you, well the spell wasn't created until the 1970s no I'm afraid unless I put you down you'll be rather out of luck." The horcrux managed to stay decently calm, and despite being upside down he managed a decent scowl aimed towards his main soul piece. Tom on the other hand just chuckled darkly; his horcrux may have had a lot going for it, but it wasn't nearly as well learned as Tom.

It made Tom almost wish that he could send a thank you card to Severus for creating such a simple and harmless spell… _almost._ As it was even if he could send the thank you card, former Dark Lord's don't send thank you notes, it was one of those things that just wasn't done. _Then again,_ Tom thought, _I have already done a lot of things that a former Dark Lord shouldn't._ But Tom quickly forgot that thought as he watched his horcrux hang upside down as his nose began to bleed.

"You'll never be able to take him you know, the Diary; he's stronger than all of us put together, with you included in that. You may as well give up now, he has strength the rest of us could only dream of, he was the first horcrux Tom, you've weakened your soul, he strengthened his." Tired of hearing the Ring's annoying pessimistic statements Tom cast a S _ilencio_ on his horcrux, before casting _Libracorpus_ and watching as his horcrux fell to the ground roughly.

"You'll never understand the power I wield, you are pathetic, I had thought as my second horcrux you would have presented me with more of a challenge that I would have had to truly pull out all the stops in order to defeat you, to persuade you to my side. I must admit I was sorely disappointed, I was only ever matched by Harry Potter, and he destroyed the diary at the age of twelve." The ring laughed like a crazed person, in a manner that reminded the former Dark Lord of Bellatrix LeStrange.

The thought of Bellatrix LeStrange sent an involuntary shutter up the spine of the main soul piece, there was something about Bellatrix LeStrange that disturbed even him. Bellatrix was a madwoman like no other, and to disturb even him showed just how truly insane the woman was, after all he's the one that turned into a psychopathic Dark Lord. Bellatrix was just not right in the head in any way shape or form and there was no denying that.

"You won't survive Riddle, not against the diary, you know it and I know it; he's powerful, more than any of us could dream of, you will never be able to take him. Not even you had me and every last one of us backing you on this, it cannot be done" Tom had no doubt that the Diary would be hard to take down, the Diary had been created when Tom was young, strong, and at his sanest…that fact alone was what made him the most dangerous, he did not have the same levels of insanity that had driven Voldemort. No the Diary would have patience driven solely by his intelligence, something Tom had not allowed for himself when he was Voldemort and that was what ruined him.

"By all rights Harry Potter should have never survived the killing curse, not only once but twice, he shouldn't have survived any of our encounters and yet Harry Potter is the boy-who-still-lives. If I have learned anything it is that even when you don't stand a chance you should fight because in the end if there is even a miniscule of hope that you could win it, you will win it."

"That was borderline sappy; what as this kid done to you, he's turning you into Dumbledore, next you'll be spouting off about how love is the greatest power and all that. You'll lose to that Diary, and when you do I'll had back to the bar and enjoy the company of beautiful women, and you'll be gone. Besides oh brilliant one, where do you think we'll have to go to get each horcrux. Or have you forgotten you had to come all the way to the US to get me."

"I have my ways; I refuse to let something as simple as location and the need to travel and no means to do so prevent me from collecting all of our soul pieces so that I can avoid hell. I managed to get here now didn't I; do you honestly think I could have apparated all the way here from London; I'm still dead you know. I also had no way of using an international portkey, so I had to improvise but I managed to track you down all the way to America now didn't I?"

"Ah but the more of us you collect so to speak, the more difficult it will become for you to travel across the globe, after all the cost of one person to travel is half the amount of two, and a third of three and so on and so forth. It won't precisely be cheap if you're planning to rob people to collect the money you'll need in order to travel, because being a stowaway, while something I have little doubt we could accomplish would become increasingly more difficult with the amount of people we're trying to keep well hidden, or did you forget that fact?"

"You seem to be under the impression that something so simple could possibly stop me, believe me I will find each and every last one of you. I will not be going to hell and if you cannot get that through your thick skull then that is your fault. I for one have no intentions of doing anything other than gathering my soul pieces and staying out of hell. If you wish to act like a small child in the meantime then that is your decision, just know that I will eventually lose my patience and when that happens you will regret it."

"Big words coming from you Tom, you may be the main soul piece, but just remember you will always be the weakest of us all." Tom scoffed at that, he was Lord Voldemort; he may have been the smallest soul piece, aside from Nagini but that meant nothing in comparison of power.

"Really, is that so, remind me again which one of us was choking the life out of the other not that long ago would you, I seem to have forgotten." His horcrux scowled at that and Tom couldn't help the oddly satisfied feeling that he got out of seeing his horcrux look so annoyed with him.

"Annoying prick aren't you? Don't you get it Tom, physically you may be stronger, but you will always be weakest, you have an emotional weakness, you fear going to hell almost as much if not more than you feared dying. The very thing that led you to seek immortality, to split your soul into pieces, but believe what you will, I know the truth."

"You know absolutely nothing." His horcrux quirked a brow at him before narrowing his eyes dangerously; or at least were he anyone but the Dark Lord. No Tom wasn't afraid of his horcrux; no matter how the soul piece chose to glare at him; he was the superior of the two and to him that was all that mattered.

"I know plenty, you seem to be missing the key concept here, fact of the matter is Tom, like it or not I am a part of you. As I said, I am your under nourished ability to have fun, I am the part of you that the other kids at the orphanage beat down. The part of you that you later learned to suppress, me and the others, we're all different parts of your personality Tom. All of the things that you wanted to rid yourself of, and in doing so you rid yourself of your sanity as well."

"Yes well if you're the part of me that was suppressed the most, why isn't you aren't the part that left me first?" He had no doubt about the truthfulness of those words; his capacity for fun was perhaps one of the things that he had suppressed the most as a child. He had never been allowed fun as a child. His horcrux wasn't wrong, the other children refused to allow him to have fun and he never really had gotten the hang of it when he was small enough to actually have fun. No that was something he never truly comprehended, but it was something he had always been content to live without.

"The first thing you got rid of Tom was your capacity to feel, it didn't matter that you were still connected to me, or your ability to feel remorse, to regret, to your compassion, your ability to care and love. The first thing you got rid of was what was weak from the moment we were conceived, you got rid of what the Amortentia our mother drugged our father with had been suppressing within us from that very moment. You actively blocked me out Tom, the diary he was locked down before we were even born, taking all those things with him."

"And the others, what part of me left with them?" The horcrux in front of him scoffed, Tom was beginning to grow tired of his horcrux and the annoying scoffing and eye rolling, and backtalk that came with having it around. If the rest of his horcruxes acted like this Tom was in for a very severe headache and a long journey, of that he was certain.

"I was the second to go Tom, I don't know the answer to that any more than you do, but when we find them I'm sure we'll be able to get the answer out of them, one way or another. After all you got the answer out of me without even trying."

"We've been searching a week now and we've yet to find even the slightest hint as to where the Diadem is. You're only good for tracking down the diary, and we're far from prepared to face him, he'll be strong and it'll take all of us to be able to bring him down. As loathe as I am to admit it, I'm going to need help with obtaining the diary horcrux without getting a free ticket to hell."

"Hey, I'm along for the ride, you and diary can work out your own petty issues thank you very much. After all I'm in for the fun of a road trip, and seeing a few fights, anything after that leave me out of it, I'm your ability to have fun not some kind of emotional- just leave me out of it."

"Fine, it is of no matter, I was just merely suggesting, after all I had thought _you_ of all people would know how to enjoy partaking in a good fight. But it's clear to me that I was wrong, you much prefer to be on the sidelines out of harm's way. You probably wouldn't have been much help in the first place."

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, because I know exactly what you're trying to do, and I have some bad news for you, it won't work. I won't allow it. Nothing that you say or do is going to manipulate me into playing like some foolish Gryffindor and going up against Diary in a fight. I unlike you have more self-preservation than that."

"Of course, I wouldn't dream of being so foolish as to manipulate the heir of Salazar Slytherin himself, I mean who would manipulate themselves, especially when it was involving something that could be considered dangerous. I was merely offering you, the Fun horcrux as you so eloquently put it the opportunity to enjoy yourself through the inevitable fight with Diary, but I wouldn't dream of making you partake in such a fight."

"Smooth Riddle, real smooth, we could have charmed the pants off of so many girls in school, but no you wouldn't let us do that. We needed to focus on our academics, on our plans as Lord Voldemort, we needed to focus on becoming the model student, and model students don't do something like bed half the girls in the school, or a third, a fourth or any of the girls in school really."

"I don't know why you would want to anyways." Tom unlike his horcrux wasn't an idiot driven purely by hormones; no he had much more intelligence than that. He could count the number of people he'd slept with in his life on one hand and he was perfectly content with that, no matter what the Ring had to say about the matter.

"Hello, sex equals fun, it's like common sense, and believe me in my free time I've had _a lot_ of fun." That was way too much information for Tom's liking he really could have gone without the images that the Ring's idea of fun placed within his mind. He had always had far more important things to do than to indulge in such frivolous activities.

"You're disgusting." His horcrux rolled his eyes before getting a smirk on his face and a slightly vindictive glint in his eye, were he anyone else, perhaps Tom would have been worried. As it was what did he the Dark Lord Voldemort have to fear from but a fraction of his soul, one that wasn't nearly as experienced with magic as he himself was?

"Sweet Salazar you're such a prude, you've probably never done it a day in your life." Tom was not having this conversation right now. He would not rise to the bait of his horcrux, it would be unwise and so he wouldn't do it. "You wouldn't even know what to do."

"I've slept with my fair share, but that is irrelevant to the matter at hand in case you have forgotten." Well if you could count less than five as a fair share, but being a Dark Lord who was leading a war was a very time consuming position, he was actually impressed that he even had time for that much. Paperwork was the unholy secret about wars that nobody ever tells you about until you're too far invested into things to back out.

"Alright, I'll make a deal with you, if you can convince a woman, a pretty one who doesn't seem desperate to join us in a threesome, then I'll actually help you with the part of capturing the diary horcrux and all that jazz. In fact, I'll even take it a step further and I'll be helpful for the rest of this little journey, if you can't manage that then I come along for the show and that's that. Not only that but all the other horcruxes get to kick back and relax while you get your butt whooped as well, you're not even allowed to ask them to join in."

"You're a disgusting pig do you know that?" The Ring just scoffed at him as though he had thought Tom was being unreasonable and ridiculous, perhaps as far as his horcrux was concerned he was, however as far as the fallen Dark Lord was concerned, he was being perfectly reasonable.

"Now, now Tom, there's no need for name calling, after all, whether you like it or not, I am a part of you." A part of him he deeply wishes never existed to begin with, he was more than glad that he had lost his ability to have fun when he created the ring horcrux, the only fault of this would be in the fact he was dealing with said horcrux now.

"Forget it, unlike you I have some decency and there is nothing decent about what you're suggesting." In fact as far as he was concerned what was being suggested was downright wrong. He didn't care if that meant his horcrux thought he was pathetic, after all his horcrux was just that, a horcrux what did the opinion of a piece of a soul not even human matter?

"You sir are no fun." He was no fun, well considering how his childhood went he did have need to grow up from quite the early age. And in addition to that there was the fact that he had lost his capacity for fun when he had killed his father and created the Ring horcrux in the first place; besides as far as he was concerned he didn't need to be fun as that was for children.

"Well as you have kindly pointed out repeatedly I might add, you are my capacity to have fun so could you really blame me for being no fun as you so eloquently put it." His horcrux seemed to sober up at that and Tom let himself for just the briefest of moments think that perhaps his horcrux would let the matter drop.

"Come on Riddle, you said yourself you can't take on the diary alone, and if you don't take my deal then that is exactly what is going to happen." Tom sighed, he didn't want to agree, but he really didn't want to have to face the Diary alone either, and it was not for him to admit, even if it had been to a piece of his own soul.

"Merlin, I can't believe I'm about to say this but fine, but we obliviate whoever it is, and we never speak of this again, to anyone or amongst ourselves ever, understood?" At those words his horcrux took on a smug kind of look before flashing him a charming smile that Tom knew all too well was entirely fake; after all it was one he had given a number of people over the years.

"Now we're talking, don't worry Tom, you won't regret this, it'll be the most fun you've probably ever had in your life." Somehow Tom doubted that, he also doubted that he wouldn't regret it because he was already beginning to regret it. He knew better than to make a deal with a Slytherin, particularly when that Slytherin was a part of himself.

"I highly doubt that." His horcrux looked at him briefly as though he was trying to decipher what would be the best thing to respond with. Tom knew that wouldn't last, his horcrux would respond with the first thing to pop into his head.

"Whatever, now we have some work to do, we need to find a girl for this little agreement, then a cheap motel, I suppose we'll have to find some cash as well. It's only the gentlemanly thing to do after all, offer to pay for the room that is."

Tom couldn't help wonder just what it was that he had gotten himself into by making an agreement with his horcrux. He knew what was implied, but he had the distinctive feeling there would be a fair amount more to the bargain he agreed upon than what was actually stated. In fact he was fairly certain that was precisely what would happen. He could only hope that whatever happened, it wouldn't be something he would regret more than he was already regretting the current decision at hand.


End file.
